1. Technical Field.
This invention relates to systems for mounting and displaying strings of ornamental Christmas lights and more particularly means for mounting such light strings on the exterior of a house or other structure.
2. Background Art.
Prior art discloses other means for mounting light strings such as Christmas lights to the exterior of structures. U.S. Pat. No. 3,204,090, discloses a perforated elongated U-shaped channel for mounting Christmas lights to a rain gutter. It discloses a means by which the ornamental Christmas lights are inserted through the back or inside of the channel utilizing spaced holes along the axis of the channel.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,859 teaches a clip for attaching decorative lights to eaves troughs which hooks over the front edge of the eaves troughs. The clip jaws are made of a resilient material and receive and hold the light bulb sockets.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,014, discloses an extruded base tape having buttons or knobs which cooperate with an elastic restraining strip to grip individual light sockets in a string of lights.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,422, discloses an elastic ribbon disposed in a stretched configuration cooperating with a flexible ribbon to form pockets to receive and tightly clasp individual light sockets in a string of lights. Various means are disclosed to form the individual light socket retaining loops.
The principal shortcoming with the prior art is that it is not at the same time susceptible of unitary construction and capable of being mounted on any rigid surface or between any two such surfaces. While U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,859 shows resilient jaws for receiving and holding a light bulb socket, it is not adaptable for use on structures not having an eaves trough or rain gutter.
Not shown in any of the prior art is a device which is adaptable for use with strings of lights having differing spacing between each light socket. A second, and very significant and practical problem not solved by the prior art, is that the mounting strip must be flexible enough to conform to and easily bend around the structure to which it is affixed, yet the light socket clamps must be rigid enough to securely hold the light socket in place.
It is an object of this invention to provide means for removably displaying string lighting, such as ornamental Christmas lighting, on the exterior of houses or other buildings with a flexible elongated base strip and a plurality of adjustable light socket holders which can be attached to the base strip at spaced intervals conforming to the spacing of the light sockets for the particular string lighting assembly being used. A second object is to provide individual attachable light socket holders which are fabricated of more rigid material in order to facilitate secure holding of individual light sockets.